Rendering a mud-brick wall with cargil, literally mud-straw. Note the small street-side windows for privacy.
There was an earthquake on Thursday night that momentarily disturbed our party held for USAID-sponsored staff leaving Kabul and also welcoming the new. Much vodka jelly was consumed in view of the glimmering lights of Kabul’s hill developments. The fort has a few new cracks in the wall and the kitchen table was covered with a new layer of dust at breakfast. The epicentre was in Northern Afghanistan near the neck of the Wakhan peninsular, a remote mountainous region with limited access. Damage in Kabul was minor but reports of casualties will take a while to filter through from the mountain communities already cut off but the oncoming winter.
View of the hill settlements during the day. As city electrical power has strengthened so the evening view improves.
International pressure has done its job. Karzai now publicly supports a runoff in the name of a bonafide government and long-term stability. Bring on November 7th!
Although TM’s work is fairly distant from the wider political issues of Afghanistan not surprisingly our lifestyle is not. There is a strong argument for reducing military force based on the number of Pakistani Taliban who cross the border to more than match each increase in ISAF forces. A political commentator and author of Ghost Wars, Steve Coll is critical of leaving a void but from the insider’s view his argument for a ‘winnable solution’ seems stretched. Rory Stewart provides an articulated argument for a reduction in international military numbers matched by an increased focus on development that instead stabilises the nation from inside. However the difference between community development and ‘state-building’ can be difficult to see from the top of a 9 figure budget courtesy of the US tax payer. See an extension of these arguments here. (As difficult as it is to profile the Taliban’s make up and expectations it is also hard to project the course of Afghanistan’s future and the effect of essentially a re-Talibanisation of the country were the international community to withdraw. Key to this is the debate whether removing the Taliban, if ever possible, would lead to a destabilisation of Al Qaeda, the more real threat to international security.
Excuse the brief move from everyday life to politics but as I say some days it is difficult to separate the two.
Duncan DJ
Duncandj in Kabul 